SAGINAW, MI — Devaun L. Lopez and Jarriel L. Reed worked together Oct. 9 to shoot and kill a man who Reed believed had shot his brother three years earlier, their friend testified Friday, Aug. 1.

But in the hours after Lopez exited Reed's vehicle and fired multiple times at their suspected rival, they learned they killed the wrong man, the friend told Saginaw County Presiding District Judge Terry L. Clark.

The friend, whom Clark ordered The Saginaw News to not identify, testified both Lopez and Reed told him about the shooting of Terry Johnson that occurred about 12:20 p.m. at North Bond and Union on Saginaw's West Side.

Terry Johnson

The friend testified during the preliminary hearing for the 23-year-old Lopez and 27-year-old Reed, who both are charged with an open count of murder and seven other felonies in the death of the 31-year-old Johnson, who was shot in the head.

Clark concluded the hearing by ruling county Assistant Prosecutor Manvel Trice showed probable cause to take the men to trial in Circuit Court.

The friend testified he was in Bay City about noon Oct. 9 when Reed called him and told him he was informed that an individual nicknamed "Zeke" was walking on North Bond. Reed was of the belief that "Zeke" was somehow involved in the 2011 shooting of Reed's brother, Vesty Reed, the friend said.

The friend returned to Saginaw and met Lopez and Reed at a house in Carrollton Township, he said. As they talked outside the house, Reed told the friend, "We finally got that (expletive)," the friend testified.

Reed told the friend he stopped the vehicle he was driving about a block away from North Bond and that Lopez exited the car with Reed's .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun, the friend said. Lopez then fired multiple times, and the man Lopez believed was "Zeke" but actually was Johnson fell against a fence, the friend said Reed told him.

Both at the house in Carrollton and later at a home on Saginaw's North Side, Lopez provided a story similar to Reed's, the friend testified. While Reed knew what "Zeke" looked like, Lopez only had heard of him, the friend said.

"I don't think he knew who he was," the friend testified.

Later that evening, at the North Side Saginaw home, the men learned they shot the wrong person as they watched a television news broadcast, the friend said.

The attorneys for Lopez and Reed, James Gust and Carla Marable, focused both on the friend's testimony but also on the fact that he did not tell police of what he says Lopez and Reed told him until February, about four months after he was jailed on other charges.

The friend said he reached out to investigators through his attorney and did not believe he would benefit from testifying. The friend's case has yet to be resolved.

Marable pointed out that in his recorded interview with investigators, the friend immediately asks them when he can get out of jail.

"I always hope to get out," the friend said in response. "I've hoped to get out since I was locked up."

Marable also asked him what he believed was going to happen with his case now that he's testified.

"I can't tell the future," he said.

The friend also acknowledged he was "upset" at one point that both Reed and Lopez gave police incriminating statements against the friend in connection with the friend's case. Reed did not testify at the friend's preliminary hearing, and while Lopez did, he denied all knowledge of the incident in which the friend is charged.

The remaining testimony from Friday's hearing came from county Forensic Pathologist Dr. Kanu Virani and police. Virani testified Johnson suffered a gunshot wound in the right temple and that the bullet was lodged in Johnson's brain.

That bullet was fired by the same .380-caliber gun that fired a bullet found near the scene by Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. James Bush, state police Sgt. Grel Rousseau testified. Rousseau testified six spent shell casings found at the scene also were fired by a .380-caliber gun.

Saginaw Police Detective Allan Rabideau testified he found those six casings at the intersection of North Oakley and Union. The casings were about 340 feet away from where Johnson was found suffering from his gunshot wound, Rabideau said.

Saginaw Police Officer Bradley Holp testified that when he arrived at the scene, Johnson still was breathing. Johnson later died at Covenant HealthCare hospital, police have said.

The open count of murder that Lopez and Reed face includes first-degree premeditated murder, which carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole. In addition to that charge, the men are charged with conspiring to commit first-degree murder, single counts of carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent, possessing a firearm as a felon, and four counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Lopez remains imprisoned at the Saginaw Correctional Facility on a perjury charge, while Reed remains jailed without bond.

— Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter @awhoag

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